This advertisement Electoral Finance Act will run in Wellington’s Capital Times weekly giveaway arts newspaper over the next two or three days.

It is a set of “postcards”. It was prompted by planning to be National’s candidate for Wellington Central. I realised that the $20,000 limit for the whole of election year would let me post one postcard to each elector, once, and one more to half of them, in the whole year.

For practical purposes that prevents communication directly with electors. Accordingly my communication will be have to be through the media filter.

Perhaps for this one election that filter will not be hostile. The New Zealand Herald’s stand against the Electoral Finance Bill is promising. But it is absolutely wrong that electors should be forced to rely on the fairness and adequacy of journalists. None of us wants the election skewed or decided by a few journalists.

The risk now will be that instead of canning this terrible law, its authors will try to fix this consequence by amendments to direct and limit media coverage, and to force uncensored publication of their propaganda. Control of the media would be a logical extension of their rhetoric against the EB and against paid advertising.

I’m encouraging people to join the party of their choice…hopefully National so that we can toss out this arrogant government. But I defend anyone’s right to vote and join whatever group appeals most. New Zealand need parties to have more members.

National, which once had over 10% of the population, is still by far the largest so it has thousands of “normal” people. But many parties are now homes primarily to the kinds of weirdos who like the idea of telling others how to live their lives, especially others who would never listen to them in real life. They get their revenge on normal people. Because sensible people have ceased to join these parties, the weirdos choose who is elected to make the rules for us all.

National is an increasingly active party. Do join as every member will count. If you are in Wellington Central that’s even better as it will help me with selection. Go to www.national.org.nz and click on Get Involved/Support National or go directly to Join National

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Comments

Very Good Stephen.
And if you’re in Manurewa, join up please. We need more members so we can select our own candidate and, as Stephen says, so we can let you know what’s happening.

Fred Phillips

December 18th, 2007

7:18 pm

All well and good Stephen, I tried to join National 6 months ago, I also donated money. I have since had zero contact from said party organisation, even locally! ( Ohariu)

Hence I have joined ACT and have been very impressed with their organisation and enthusiasm. And most importantly their commitment to liberal economic philosophy.

Should be a good tussle!

Good luck

Johnboy

December 18th, 2007

7:49 pm

Very unfair of you to suggest Stephen that other partys like say Labour may consist of weirdos that try to control other peoples thinking. My mate Stan has told me that his union mates have never tried to influence his thinking as long as “He has done wot he was told” So there!

I’ll pass that message on. That kind of oversight should be sorted out quickly.

Oliver

December 19th, 2007

1:27 am

Those postcards are fantastic. Good luck for Wellington Central. I look forward to having you in parliament next year.

Blair

December 19th, 2007

2:49 am

Kia kaha Stephen. Good to see you active again. You should by rights still be in Parliament and I hope lessons have been learned by all parties with regard to 2005. But on to the future. Probably not much I can do from Auckland but if you need anything done I would be more than glad to help. Let’s get you back where you belong 🙂

Keith Hawke

December 19th, 2007

9:21 am

Its time your voice was heard again Stephen. There is too much political spin and too little intelligent analysis and comment in the political arena. Get in there and kick some butt.
I can still write if you need some input.

Richard B

December 19th, 2007

9:37 am

Why can’t you stand for us in Selwyn Stephen?

Carter is a useless campaigner i’m sorry to say.

uk_kiwi

December 19th, 2007

9:42 am

It is a great idea to encourage people to take part in democracy, people should take an interest- what’s passed in parliament does affect their daily lives.

It is a pity that ACT supports those with extreme wealth who want to anonymously buy influence with politicians and corrupt the democratic process in NZ. That’s not free speech, it’s corruption and graft.

Richard B

December 19th, 2007

9:51 am

Where has Act ever said anything like that uk_kiwi?

I actually had to agree with Rodney on the EFB stuff, he gave some cracking speeches in tandem with Chris Finlayson (and Bill English) standing up for free speech of all New Zealanders.

uk_kiwi

December 19th, 2007

10:05 am

You are right about ACT, I had forgotten Mr Franks was now a National candidate. I presume the song remains the same however, to further the interests of the plutocracy.

Why should anonymous donations be allowed at all? I am for total transparency, if you want to be part of the democratic process then you should stand proud about who you are and what your values are. That National is so keen to hide these groups is telling.

Joely Doe

December 19th, 2007

10:22 am

Your right uk_kiwi. Perhaps you should take the anonymous donations up with Helen Clark. She and Labour still want them and have just passed legislation for them to continue.

Richard B

December 19th, 2007

10:50 am

Yes, while limiting the amount that groups such as Greenpeace and the Sensible Sentencing Trust can spend.

This Act is wholly undemocratic. It doesn’t affect the people it was aimed to (the Brethren), while restricting legitimate groups like Greenpeace and the SST.

UK Kiwi, you obviously don’t work in an industry where you (or perhaps your employer) runs the risk of being punished if you speak out.

You might not think that to be the case, but with New Zealand being such a small country, it happens all the time.

There are legitmate reasons for wanting anonymity. Hell – you are posting under a screen name, “UK_Kiwi” surely in the interests of transparnacy and openness, you should consider signing all of your posts with your full name and address. That will keep things open and honest.

There is a good argument against large anonymous donations – I think voters have a right to know who is backing a campaign if their proportion of contributed funding is very large. But generally I tend to favour anonymous donations because I favour anonymous voting, and for the same reasons. If I’m a civil servant and want to donate to National, why the hell should I have to declare it and risk my career? This government has shown such thinking is no longer idle paranoia.

James Read

January 29th, 2008

3:40 pm

Thank you Stephen., for your call on more Kiwis to join a political party.Like you, I have a preference, but as I said to some teenagers last election, my chief wish was that they join something and participate in the political process. As an Ex-M.P., prehaps you have some ideas as to why only 5 per cent belong to all the parties combined.

Ryan

March 10th, 2008

8:09 am

It’s great to see so many pro-active people in New Zealand that express valid opinions on these blogs; it shows that we do ultimately live in a democracy and the voice of the people has not been and cannot be silenced despite an out-of-control governments attempts to silence opposition. Perhaps there are afew weirdos attracted to the Labor party but that’s mainly because they are a liberal party and accepting of cross-genders, Gays and other such weirdos that make up our population…it’s good that they can be represented as well as the “normal” people.
But the bottom line is this. We have the choice of being ruled by two parties, National or Labor and either way we get a reactionary government in power. Either way it creates an in-balance and the times when we’ve seen that balance tipped furthest towards breaking point is during National rule, when the economy crashes, un-employment hits new highs and ridiculous social policies are passed by un-empathetic politicians. Mind you after saying all that what we live in now is nothing better than a police state, politely asking us “not to do anything until we have permission”.
I don’t think either party deserves power this time round but unfortunately one of them will get it, but they won’t get my vote…that will probably go to NZ First or God forbid, the Greens.

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